The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

After Vivienne worked her magic, Tyler's back was on the mend. He was sitting across from his wife, playing with their kid, when he patted her hand and said reassuringly, "The court summons have been sent, honey. No need to worry anymore." Anna was scrolling through her phone, the vibration alerts following one after another.

Without even raising an eyelid, she saw that familiar nflash up and felt a surge of irritation.

Instead of reacting, she simply tapped the screen a few times, silencing the notifications. "Kaitlyn, it's not about whether they want to let this go. It's about us not letting them off the hook." Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she texted Soren.

"Besides, I bet it's not the Abernathy family who wants to drag this out. It's probably that gold digger Zinnia trying to extort scash.

But she's just one person, and even with that Kipling, they couldn't muster up such an army of trolls. Looks like there's hardly any genuine public opinion left." Vivienne, unsurprised, replied to Kala's message while said, "There must be sinsiders helping them, like that certain Ramona Grimshaw from the celeb world." "Oh, her," Anna said with vague significance.

Nodding in understanding, they changed the subject. "Are we still going to release what we've prepared?" "Absolutely!" Vivienne exclaimed. "If they want to make a big deal out of it, let's help them out." Jerry looked up, interest piqued. "But why is the Abernathy family backing them up like this?" Leopold, who had been lounging on the couch, shifted his feet.

Hearing Jerry say this, he stared at the ceiling, his listless gaze flickering.

Pursing his lips, he decided it was tto stop playing dead and sat up. "I might know why... My dad set up a blind date forrecently." Thomas spoke bluntly, "What's a blind date got to do with this? Don't tellhe set you up with Kipling." Jerry perked up with a laugh, "Is your father that progressive? But man, he could've picked someone better for you. There are so many good guys out there, and he chose that dude? Looks like you're not his favorite son." "More like he's got a grudge," Anna chimed in coolly.

Leopold gave his so-called friends a mournful look.

"Guys, calm down. I don't have the energy to argue with you now. I'm almost annoyed to death by the second daughter of the Abernathy family!" "You've met Sophie?" Vivienne, who was initially paying attention to the online trends, joined the conversation when she heard this. Leopold looked at her and said, "She's the one!" He suddenly stood up and sat cross-legged in front of Vivienne, slapping his hand as he complained, "And her nisn't Sophie Abernathy. Her last nis Abernasy because her mother isn't a legally wedded wife of the Abernathy family. Those old-fashioned Abernathys don't recognize them! They're not even on the family tree. I don't know why they still have such an old-fashioned thing." Leopold muttered, "My father wasn't even thinking about a marriage alliance with the Abernathy family. It's just that one of our relatives had sbusiness dealings with them and couldn't refuse when asked to meet. But then, I got caught up with that woman! Vivienne, you don't know, that mother and daughter are both scheming..." "Stop!" Vivienne interrupted, her face cold, "What matters is the relationship between this Sophie and Kipling." "Who wants to hear how you got entangled with a woman?" Jerry chimed in. The others nodded solemnly.

Leopold felt as if he had been shot in the chest with an arrow. He looked at everyone with a mix of grief and resentment, but unfortunately, no one sympathized with him.

Especially under Vivienne's piercing gaze, the pressure was too much. Wiping away imaginary tears, he confessed, "Kipling is Sophie's uncle. That makes him Gavin's brother-in-law." Anna's mouth twitched, "That explains it. The Abernathy family is really going all out. Seems like Gavin is quite smitten with his wife." Mid-sentence, she was nudged by Thomas.

Anna glanced over reproachfully and, catching Vivienne's expression, suddenly remembered that Gavin's official wife was actually Percival's aunt by marriage.

The room went silent, the awkwardness palpable. Anna scratched her head, "Uh, Ms. Vivienne, I didn't mean it like that." What to do? What to do?! Why did she have to speak before thinking?! Thankfully, Percival wasn't there, or she would've been doomed! Ms. Vivienne wouldn't be mad, would she? Anna was internally panicking, but Vivienne's expression softened. "No worries You're not wrong. Gavin does seem to fancy his so-called wife, But soon, he'll regret ever marrying her." At the stroke of midnight.

#Julian's Daughter-in-Law Sues School Board Chief# #Kaitlyn, Kipling# #Twist in Sexual Assault Case?# And other such tags suddenly surged to the top of the trending list, overshadowing Zinnia's latest blog post and a celeb couple's announcement.

On a lazy weekend night, the online crowd of night owls was ripe for .

The first to report, the eager netizens read the court's full post.

Shocked and stirred, the first commenter left a 'Amazing' and stepped back to continue feasting on the juicy updates.

The others followed suit, each comment more creative than the last.

[Last tI was this shocked was when someone sued that big telecom.] [This lady's got guts. How much does she believe her father-in-law's innocence?] The digital grapevine was abuzz, and the scandal was just heating up.

[Good grief, Kaitlyn is a warrior. She's really got the guts to sue, isn't she? Not afraid of ending up paying for the lawsuit herself?] [Someone's out of the loop. What's there to be scared of? Kipling is just a department head, not the big boss.] [Speaking of which, now that she's suing, could there be a twist in the tale?] Online chatter bounced back and forth, with no trace of any paid trolls in the mix.

The folks Zinnia had hired, including those sneaky paid trolls someone had brought into the fray, were wiped clean from the conversation.

Only a few stray comments still hopped around below. The rest were drowned out by the savvy intemercenaries Vivienne had brought in, directing the conversation with intent. Netizens began to suspect that maybe, just maybe, there was more to the story.

No one was going to sleep now; they were all buzzing with mentions to the Department of Education, full of glee.

Vivienne, ever the fan of a good show, didn't mind adding fuel to the fire. Late into the night, she made a call to the cell phone of the head of the city's Department of Education. Besides Percival, no one knew what she said to the director.

After hanging up, Vivienne seemed to be in an even better mood than before, stretching out her long legs and draping them over someone, looking quite content.

Percival's pen skidded across the document he was working on.

His gaze lowered to the sight of the creamy skin contrasting against the black duvet.

Without hesitation, he tossed aside the paperwork, his hand coming to rest on Vivienne's thigh, "Court's in session tomorrow. Vivienne, don't you plan on getting any sleep?"